


It Never Goes Away

by StarshipCaptain



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, Comfort, M/M, link has fibro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:00:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26864047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarshipCaptain/pseuds/StarshipCaptain
Summary: The pain never left, and so here he is, suffering the consequences.
Relationships: Link/Sheik (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	It Never Goes Away

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by my own flareup and written during a period of considerable pain. Link has fibromyalgia and Sheik is doing the best he can for him. Not beta-ed. Not even proof read.

It hurt. Link couldn’t pinpoint what hurt, but it hurt. The sun shining through the window just made him shy away and pull the blanket up higher. It hurt. 

Link took a deep breath and clenched his jaw when stabbing pain echoed down his back and across his ribs. His fingers throbbed as he clutched the blanket and he felt like there was a small dagger travelling up and down the middle of his arms. He wanted to cry. 

“Link?” came the voice of an angel from the other side of the door. “I brought some breakfast upstairs for you. You took a long time to get up so I thought you might like to eat up here before we move on”

That was Sheik, the only reason Link agreed to travel out of Hyrule and into the countries surrounding it. Sheik had expressed a desire to see more of the world before he was bound to some kind of duty that would keep him stationary. Of course, Link would have gone anywhere with Sheik, even to the pits of hell, so he said something like, “I’m going too and that’s that.” They set off maybe two months ago and were staying in one of the rare taverns they came across. 

“Mmmm,” Link hummed as loudly as he could. It didn’t feel very loud to him, but Sheik came inside anyway and gently set the plate down on the table before he came to crouch in front of Link’s screwed up face. 

A tear rolled across Link’s nose before it was wiped away by rough fingers and Link opened his eyes to stare into the red boring into him. 

“Is it that bad today?” Sheik asked. 

Link could hardly nod for the ache that he felt in his neck from days of sleeping on the ground. He felt horrible. Not just because of the pain radiating from every point of himself that he was aware of, but because he felt guilty. This wasn’t the first time he had pain so prevalent that they had to put a stop to their journey to let Link recover. 

“I see,” Sheik said with a small sigh. He reached out to smooth Link’s hair out of his face before saying, “We will stay here as long as you need, you know this.”

Defeat washed over him at these words. He didn’t want to stay. He wanted to be on Epona again galloping across unfamiliar terrain with the wind whipping his hair into a frenzy of knots and tangles, Sheik at his side on his own stallion. Link felt helpless. He was supposed to be the Hero of Hyrule. How could he be a hero to anyone when he couldn’t even get out of bed?

“I’ll fetch you some more water,” Sheik said gently as he pressed a kiss to Link’s forehead before he picked up the half empty glass on the table. “Don’t wander off.”

That put a small smile on Link’s face. He wasn’t going anywhere. Sheik must have been sent by the Goddesses or something because Link couldn’t imagine himself worthy of this kind of relationship with anyone without divine intervention. 

Link felt the smile fall as he thought about this. As long as he had known of Sheik, Link had been this way. Every wound was excruciating. Each bump and bruise felt like being rammed into by a moblin. Link couldn’t even rest without a persistent ache and stabbing pain radiating out of his joints. Time travel didn’t lend itself to understanding when things happened, but Link guessed this happened some time after his attempt at the Fire Temple in Death Mountain. He had stumbled from that place burned and battered and in more pain than he could ever recall and it never really went away. Even now as he thought about it, his head started to hurt and his skin felt like it was being burned with every brush of the air. 

“I have your water,” Sheik said as he entered the room. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

Link shook his head and sniffled, trying to fight back angry and pained tears. He hoped he could just get over this flareup before the next day so they could head out again. The breakfast on the table called to him as much as it made his stomach turn. It wasn’t going to be a good day. 

“Let me sit with you for a while. I have some reading I intend to finish before we reach the next town,” Sheik announced as he pulled a chair over beside Link’s bed and settled down. When Link reached his hand out to rest it on Sheik’s leg, Sheik pulled it up to his lips to leave a gentle peppering of light kisses before he held Link’s hand and started to read aloud some dreadfully boring history of a country far off. 

Link would tell you it was Sheik’s horribly boring book that put him to sleep again, not the exhaustion that washed over him or the comforting feeling of Sheik holding his hand. 

It was the only thing that didn’t hurt. 


End file.
